Forced labour exploitation
In 2021, the NHTH received 1,066 reports of potential cases of labour trafficking, primarily in domestic work, agriculture and farming, construction, retail, hospitality, and illicit activities, among other sectors.
16 A further 400 reports of trafficking for both labour and sexual exploitation were received, mostly in domestic work, illicit activities, and the illicit massage and spa business. The majority of victims identified in labour trafficking were adults (81 per cent), and more than half of all victims were foreign nationals (55 per cent).
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The risk of forced labour is well-documented in the domestic work sector.
18 Domestic workers in the US are exploited through passport withholding, physical and verbal abuse, and isolation, among other harmful measures.
19 In 2021, 185 potential cases of labour trafficking, and 59 cases of labour and sex trafficking within domestic work were reported to the NHTH.
20 Risks are also present in agriculture; of cases reported to the NHTH in 2021, 117 (11 per cent) involved forced labour in agricultural farms, making it the second most commonly reported sector.
21 Migrant workers from Mexico and Central America have reportedly experienced exploitation in agricultural farms in South Georgia, including gun violence and passport and document confiscation.
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Forced labour of children is also reported in the US, including among unaccompanied migrant children.
23 Unaccompanied children from Central America are reportedly deceived by sponsors and forced to work through debt bondage in food packing, agriculture, manufacturing, and fashion.
24 In 2019, a Federal Judge sentenced a couple from Texas to imprisonment and ordered them to pay US$288,620 for forced labour and other offences, after they trafficked a child from Guinea and exploited her in domestic servitude for 16 years.
25 From June 2019 to June 2020, the government recorded 200 child victims of trafficking for forced labour.
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Forced commercial sexual exploitation of adults
The NHTH received just under 7,500 reports of potential cases of sex trafficking in 2021, primarily in pornography, the illicit massage and spa business, the hotel sector, and residence-based commercial sex.
27 Reports to the hotline indicate that violence, confinement, threats, and confiscation of identity documents were used to subject women to forced sexual exploitation in hotels and motels.
28 Between July 2019 and June 2020, 6,077 victims of sex trafficking were reported through the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (DOJ OVC), of whom 94 per cent were women and girls.
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Commercial sexual exploitation of children
Between June 2019 and 2020, 1,744 child victims of sex trafficking were reported through the DOJ OVC, including girls (1,600), boys (119), and transgender children (25). The 2021 Federal Human Trafficking Report indicates that more than half of the victims identified in all new criminal human trafficking cases in 2021 were children, including sex trafficking cases where they accounted for 66 per cent of victims.
30 The Internet was the primary mechanism used for soliciting buyers in sex trafficking cases in 2021 (85 per cent).
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